8.2 Classifying Composition, Decomposition, and Combustion Reactions

Three classifications of chemical reactions will be reviewed in this section (composition, decomposition and combustion), while two additional chemical reactions (single and double displacement) will be explored in the proceeding section. Predicting the products in some of them may be difficult, but the reactions are still easy to recognize.

Watch Type of Chemical Reaction (5 mins)

A composition reaction (sometimes also called a combination reaction or a synthesis reaction) produces a single substance from multiple reactants. A single substance as a product is the key characteristic of the composition reaction. There may be a coefficient other than one for the substance, but if the reaction has only a single substance as a product, it can be called a composition reaction. In the reaction

2H₂(g) + O₂(g) → 2H₂O(ℓ)

water is produced from hydrogen and oxygen. Although there are two molecules of water being produced, there is only one substance—water—as a product. So this is a composition reaction.

A decomposition reaction starts from a single substance and produces more than one substance; that is, it decomposes. One substance as a reactant and more than one substance as the products is the key characteristic of a decomposition reaction. For example, if we look at the decomposition of sodium hydrogen carbonate (also known as sodium bicarbonate):

2NaHCO₃(s) → Na₂CO₃(s) + CO₂(g) + H₂O(ℓ)

We can see that sodium carbonate, carbon dioxide, and water are produced from the single substance sodium hydrogen carbonate.

Composition and decomposition reactions are difficult to predict; however, they should be easy to recognize.

A combustion reaction occurs when a reactant combines with oxygen, many times from the atmosphere, to produce oxides of all other elements as products; any nitrogen in the reactant is converted to elemental nitrogen, N₂. Many reactants, called fuels, contain mostly carbon and hydrogen atoms, reacting with oxygen to produce CO₂ and H₂O. For example, the balanced chemical equation for the combustion of methane, CH₄, is as follows:

CH₄ + 2O₂ → CO₂ + 2H₂O

Kerosene can be approximated with the formula C₁₂H₂₆, and its combustion equation is

2C₁₂H₂₆ + 37O₂ → 24CO₂ + 26H₂O

Sometimes fuels contain oxygen atoms, which must be counted when balancing the chemical equation. One common fuel is ethanol, C₂H₅OH, whose combustion equation is

C₂H₅OH + 3O₂ → 2CO₂ + 3H₂O

If nitrogen is present in the original fuel, it is converted to N₂, not to a nitrogen-oxygen compound. Thus, for the combustion of the fuel dinitroethylene, whose formula is C₂H₂N₂O₄, we have

2C₂H₂N₂O₄ + O₂ → 4CO₂ + 2H₂O + 2N₂

Example 8.2b

Problems

Complete and balance each combustion equation.

1. the combustion of propane, C₃H₈
2. the combustion of ammonia, NH₃

Solutions

1. The products of the reaction are CO₂ and H₂O, so our unbalanced equation is C₃H₈ + O₂ → CO₂ + H₂O. Balancing (and you may have to go back and forth a few times to balance this), we get C₃H₈ + 5O₂ → 3CO₂ + 4H₂O.
2. The nitrogen atoms in ammonia will react to make N₂, while the hydrogen atoms will react with O₂ to make H₂O, thus NH₃ + O₂ → N₂ + H₂O. To balance this equation without fractions (which is the convention), we get 4NH₃ + 3O₂ → 2N₂ + 6H₂O.

Attribution & References

Except where otherwise noted, this section is adapted by Adrienne Richards from “Chemical Reactions and Equations: Composition, Decomposition, and Combustion Reactions” In Introductory Chemistry: 1st Canadian Edition by David W. Ball and Jessica A. Key, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.